Monday, April 23, 2012

Jazzy Guitars Grades 5/6





Doing this lesson really helped the kids get the concept of rhythm and movement in art.  Diagonal lines and shapes for "movement".  Patterns and repetition for "rhythm".  I repeated that over and over again and pretty soon the kids were saying it on their own.

BIG thanks to Holly at "Lines, Dots, and Doodles" for posting this lesson and inspiring me!

The steps were:
Draw with pencil
Trace pencil with black marker
Paint everything, don't worry too much about staying in the lines b/c going to go over them a 3rd time
Paint over black lines with black paint

   

Monday, April 16, 2012

Inky Monsters


You know those art lessons that you really want to do, but continually move it to the back burner because you're really nervous about trying it?  (Or maybe it's just me?)
The first time I saw Stefan Bucher's "Daily Monsters" I flipped.  So wonderfully simple yet fantastic.  I so wanted to share the idea with my students but my fears were:
1.  Ink.  My classroom is not an "art room".  I don't even have a sink in my room.  (So far, I'm the only art teacher I know without a sink.)  Hence, using INK for a project seemed daunting at best.
2.  Blown Ink Monsters.  Sometimes when I give my students lots of freedom/little instruction many of them freeze and look at me like I just told them perform brain surgery.  I then spend a significant portion of the period coaxing these students to really stretch and come up with something creative w/o me spoon feeding it to them.  I realize this is my job, but when my lessons are more structured and the expectations are more defined, my job becomes easier.

Well, I bit the bullet before spring break & assigned the students the task of creating their own "Ink Monsters".  I showed them some of the Daily Monsters created by Mr. Bucher first.  Then my fears quickly disappeared and I had a blast watching and listening to my students create fun and fanciful monsters.

Step 1 - drop some ink on paper, we used white construction paper size 5x7"
Step 2 - blow ink around with a straw, we tried skinny stir straws too and they didn't work as well as regular straws. I also cut the straws in half, thinking the kids wouldn't have to blow as hard.  I'm not a scientist though, so  I have no idea if this was true.
Step 3 - Embellish the ink blot w/ a black marker and create a monster.

These are some of the Monsters they created:










Sunday, April 1, 2012

Easter Art Time

Easter Break started for us on Friday!

Our artwork celebrating the holiday.  My favorites are the Easter Lily flowers drawn by the 2nd/3rd graders & even though everyone else thinks they're beautiful....I had multiple kids extremely frustrated with their "flower drawings".  They word "ugly" was stinging my ears often during this lesson.  

Sigh. 

When I shared with a friend that my high school students were so displeased with the "prints" they made & the fact that they couldn't get past the idea that "prints" are not supposed to look like drawings, etc.  He said to me that they haven't developed yet a sensibility that it takes to see art in that way.  Makes sense.


Ahhhhh what a beautiful feeling when the art lesson is truly one that stretches the students and takes them out of their comfort zone and they are pleased with their results.  These are the days I feel like I've won the jackpot.   (This didn't happen w/ the lilies below, but I'm not giving up.  Can't wait to try again next year:)  Hope you enjoy them.
1st Grade "Crosses on a Hill"



2nd/3rd Grade "Easter Lilies & Cross"





5th/6th Grade "Mosaic Crosses"